Movie Review: Demon Knight

This movie has only been out since 1996 or so, but it’s one of the greatest movies ever. This isn’t so much a review as it is a homage.

This movie came out when I was 16 and for some reason I felt the need to see it. I think it was because I was such a huge Tales From The Crypt fan.

I went to my local mall theater and bought a ticket and sat down to watch one of the greatest movies I had ever seen up to that point. I didn’t even find it odd that they sold a ticket to me, considering you had to be 18 to see it.

I went back with some friends and watched it again. Once again, getting tickets when we were only 16.

I told some other friends at school about it and we planned to go on a Friday night. That night, one of the two friends had his parents take us all up to the mall, including his own younger brother and his brother’s friend.

The parents and the younger brother with his friend got to the ticket window and purchased tickets to the movie. The parents weren’t going in to watch, they were going shopping. We got to the window and we were denied tickets because we weren’t 18. We walked around the entire mall trying to find my buddy’s parents. Eventually we did and they went back to the ticket window with us. They were going to buy us tickets for the next showing, but it was sold out and it was the last showing.

The parents left and we purchased tickets to another movie that had already started and were going to sneak into Demon Knight. For the first time ever, the theater had people checking tickets at the individual theaters.

Depressed, we sat down in our own theater and unhappily watched Stargate. Every now and then one of us would get up and check and eventually halfway through the movie the guy checking tickets at the door was gone. We decided since the movie was half over it would be pointless, so we finished our movie and went home, pissed.

Overall I got to see the movie 6 times in the theater, the most times I’ve ever seen any movie in the theater. I just didn’t get to see it that one night.

As soon as it came out on video I bought a copy and watched it dozens of times. How could I not? It features some of the best actors in roles that seemed to be designed just for them. William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith and Thomas Haden Church as well as everyone else all put on a great performance, just like Billy Zane who dominates the screen with his own.

There’s Billy from the movie, just before he slices open his hand with a giant nail on his other hand and a green liquid seeps out of it onto the ground, where demons emerge from the bubbling puddles of ooze.

It was his performance in Demon Knight that made me a huge fan of his. He even made Titanic not so bad. He treated Rose exactly how she deserved to be treated. Awesome.

There should have been a sequel to the movie (Demon Knight, not Titanic), except there never was one. Tales From The Crypt did put out another movie called Bordello Of Blood, but it wasn’t nearly as good as Demon Knight, and as far as I know, Tales never put out another movie.

As it stands, though, Demon Knight will always be one of my favorites. I’m not sure how it didn’t make it to my Top 10 list, but never mind that, if you haven’t seen it, check it out. You’re sure to love it, especially if you love demons ruining people’s shit. And Billy Zane.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie, featuring Thomas Haden Church and Billy Zane.